The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for separating plastic film material from waste. Waste, other than specific types of industrial or agricultural waste generally contains substantial amounts of flexible plastics, such as film material of garbage bags and packaging material. For an effective recycling of plastic material, it is desirable to have such plastic film waste separated from the other waste. For the processing of categories of waste, it is desirable that the waste contains no or very little plastic film material.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,067,506, Japanese patent application publ. No. 54 022 4777, European patent application 0 050 259 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,097, apparatuses are disclosed in which plastic film material is separated from waste by bringing waste in contact with circulating hooks that engage plastic film material more than other material brought in contact with the hooks. The circulating hooks displace engaged film material away from the other waste and the engaged film material is subsequently disengaged from the hooks and transported away for further processing and storage.
In these apparatuses, a stream of waste from which plastic film material is to be separated is caused to come in contact with the hooks by causing the waste to drop or slide to the hooks under the influence of gravity.